Traveller

Chapter 8

"Thank you" A strained smile spread across my face. Happiness overwhelmed me and water welled in my eyes, I was able to press my emotions down fast enough that I think my influx of emotion was missed.

Removing his hand from my own Dean spoke. "We'll take you back to our motel to sleep, but first you'll want some clothes of your own, I guess we don't know how long you'll be with us." In spite of the fact, neither of them were entirely happy with the situation, they put aside their hesitation towards me to look after me.

Dean leant closer towards the wall to get out the wallet that had resided in his back pocket. He tossed the 20 that was now in his hand onto the table, not bothering to call the waitress back to the table to get the bill.

We left the restaurant and drove away.

The three of us meandered the aisles of the store together, each of us putting an item into the trolley as we saw something suitable for me, a shirt here, a pair of jeans there. Once we had done I made my way over purposely to the underwear as it seemed to have escaped the brothers' minds that I would need anything to go underneath the many layers we had picked up.

Each of them split off from me making their way over to the men's section like they were somehow embarrassed, which made me giggle under my breath. These were grown, men.

Getting to the underwear section I picked up a bra and a couple of sports bras god knows I would need them if I was to keep up with those two. Along with those I picked up pants and socks.

Finally, happy enough with my collection I slowly made my way over to where Sam and Dean had compiled their own basket worth of clothes to buy.

When I reached them, they dumped their stuff into the trolley and we carried on weaving through the aisles, picking up things they needed, until we reached the tills at the front of the shop.

An averagely attractive middle-aged woman, with a blue cotton vest on, greeted me. Her sights then flicked on to the men, behind me flirting with each of them shamelessly, once we had got to the conveyer belt. I started to bag up the items we bought as the lady scanned each item, while Sam and Dean placed each item on the moving belt. After a few minutes, all of the items had been bagged up and Sam had paid the total, with a credit card I was sure they had gotten fraudulently. I softly shook my head laughing to myself again, I'm sure people are going to think I'm mad the way I laugh to myself all the time. Which in turn made me laugh again.

Picking up the bags, I put them under my arms, and began my way out of the store. By the time I had gotten to the exit the others had caught up and we were now in step with each other.

We dumped the bags each of us held, into the boot of the car.

Soon we were back at the motel they were staying at.

I sat on the sofa that presided in the middle of the room, with the bags next to me. I sorted through it, putting my stuff into the duffle bag we had bought. Sam grabbed the 2 bags that contained groceries and toiletries and put the items away, in their corresponding 'homes'.

About 5 minutes later Dean walked into the motel room placing a set of keys on the kitchenette counter. "Luckily the motel had a spare room. Either Sam or me will sleep in there tonight. We would give the room to you but we can't leave you alone, unprotected. Sorry."

"It's alright, you really shouldn't have gone to the trouble of getting the extra room though I wouldn't have minded sleeping on the sofa yanoe. I suppose whoever's names on the credit card can afford it anyway, I guess."

My comment got their attention, each looked at me with a little bit of scepticism but neither said anything.

Turning my attention back to the things I had bought, I withdrew the notepad and pen from the bag. Considering that I was still too on edge to sleep and thoughts were currently circling my mind I chose to take some notes about what I knew. Names, places, actors/ actresses, plots and facts I knew got jotted down in the book in a messy jumble of words.

I didn't know what information I'd need to share with the Winchesters yet or what I'd need in the future, so everything that came to mind got written on the sheets of paper in front of me. 10 pages of writing later and I was yawning every 30 seconds or so, I now felt sufficiently tired enough to go to sleep.

I flipped the notebook shut, while I walked over to the bed closest to me and put it under the pillow as I got into the sheets, still clothed.

The next thing I knew I was awoken by the smell of burning. I sat up quickly in the bed, searching for the affliction to my nostrils. Sighting Dean at the stove made me realise that that hadn't all been a dream and he was currently massacring something he was attempting to cook.

Jolting out of bed I made my way over to where he stood, grabbing the handle off of him. With my other hand, I turned off the gas. "What were you trying to cook?"

"Spaghetti Bolognese" he muttered.

I burst out laughing when I saw that he had somehow managed to burn spaghetti. How? I don't know. How he managed to look after Sam for so many years baffled me.

My laughing ceased when I saw the anger and sadness in his eyes even though his face attempted to present a non-caring attitude.

"Where's Sam?" I asked as I tried to salvage what pasta I could and added more spaghetti to the pan. This time I put in enough water and placed it on the ring in the back.

"In the shower in the room, next door. I said I'd cook. We couldn't both leave the room, especially since you were asleep.

"Hmm, okay. Well don't worry about this, I'll cook. Shower if you want, dinner will be done in 30 minutes or so."

All I got was a quiet grunt in response. Grabbing a towel from a shelf, Dean made his way into the bathroom shutting and locking the door behind him.

Hearing the stream of water coming from the shower brought a smile to my face. Whilst I knew I had a long way to go, this small amount of give made me think that there was a chance I could win him over and get him to trust me.

Spaghetti Bolognese.

Back to the task at hand.

I turned toward the small fridge freezer in the corner hoping to find the ingredients I needed. I managed to find enough to do the job. I chopped up the ingredients and began frying off the onion and mince in a pan together. Turning on the gas for the pasta I set about finishing off the Bolognese.

It had been about 10 minutes since Dean had stepped into the shower when he came back out wearing only a towel around his waist. He nearly jumped from his skin. Gripping the place in which he'd tucked in the towel, he stopped still in his tracks "Err.. Yeah. Sorry, forgot you were here. Guess I'm not used to living with anyone else but Sam... or my Dad".

My eyes worked upwards scanning over every inch of him that was not covered by the towel, noticing the scars that were jotted across his entire body. Spaced out I closed the space in between us both as I noticed the necklace that hung from his neck, the ‘Samulet’. I hadn't realised it seemed like I had been blatantly checking him out until I was brought out of my trance by a chuckle. f**k. My eyes shot up, from the pendent that currently sat in my palm, to his. I glared at his puzzled expression, before turning my attention back to what I was cooking, hiding my blush that had rose to my cheeks. It was difficult to not notice things and comment on them when you know the future.

“Don’t lose that necklace. Keep it safe.” I paused briefly before adding, “Get dressed. Dinner will be ready in 15”.

Nothing else was said. Dean just made his way over to the wardrobe at the side of the beds and grabbed some clothes. Then he made his way over back to the bathroom. After a minute had passed he made his way back out, fully clothed this time.

“Need any help?” a smidge of amusement still on his lips.

“Grab some plates out of the cupboard if you want, I’m not ready to dish up yet but I’ll need them in a few” he set about doing the task I had given him, as the plates were being lined up on the counter, the door swung open as Sam entered.

“Smells good what are you cooking?” Sam smiled as he looked over to me and discovered that it was me that was cooking and not Dean.

“Bolognese. That alright?” I responded, smiling back.

“If it tastes as good as it smells. Definitely!” his smile grew wider as he got closer and could see the contents of the pans.

By the time the plates were laid out and dean had washed up the cutlery that had been sat in the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, the food was cooked and I started to plate it up. “I cooked plenty, so if I didn’t give you enough there’s more in the pan.” I made my way over to the sofa where Sam and Dean now currently sat. I passed each of them their plate before stepping over Dean’s legs which were propped up on the coffee table in front of the sofa. I sat down in-between them with my own dinner in my hands enjoying the warmth that the brothers and my plate emitted. The evening had made the temperature drop a reasonable amount. I earned a ‘thanks’ from Sam and an almost thank you which came out as a mumble, from Dean, as he devoured the heap of spaghetti in front of him.

“Good, I’m guessing?” This time, both of their answers came out as a mumble as they ate away. Confirming my own question, I took a bite out of the pasta that I had wound onto my fork. Wow, at least I know there’s one dish I can cook.

Dean seemed to take full advantage of the extra food as he scooped more spaghetti on to his plate making this his fourth plate. Sam had had an extra portion too but I don’t know where he put it all.

Picking up the plate from my lap Sam made his way to the sink, dumping them in there. I followed him and grabbed a tea towel from the counter top, as he ran the water so he could wash our plates. “Thanks again Freya, that was really nice of you to cook for us.”

“No thank you. I know you don’t trust me yet and you have no reason too but you could have treated me a lot worse if you had wanted too. Please don’t think I don’t see that and appreciation it.” I tried to articulate my feelings a little better than I had managed earlier. While we were talking I knew Dean was listening in as he sneakily eased the volume down on the TV he had been watching. Although I knew he was listening the words I wanted to say came out easier knowing I didn’t have multiple sets of eyes grilling me.

“Being with you is a lot to take in. I mean I have watched much of your lives on television and you’re in front of me. I feel like I know you both but I don’t, not fully any way. And it’s weird that I feel that I know you and you don’t know me at all... I’m struggling to explain myself.”

“No. It’s okay. I think I understand you enough. You are right we don’t fully trust you but we have to trust in something and if that’s just that we trust you’ll tell us the truth when we need to know well I guess that’ll have to do, at least for now.” Sam had a way with putting me at ease, I don’t know whether it was his voice or his way with words but it made me happy to know I had him around.

It took us less time to do the dishes than it took us to have this conversation. Once we both had said what we wanted Sam said goodnight and took his bag leaving the room Dean and I were in.

Putting the last glass into the cupboard I sat back down on the sofa next to Dean, he hadn’t even bothered to take his dish to the sink he had only managed to move it as far as the coffee table.

I settled into the sofa and began watching whatever shite Dean had decided to put on.

Within minutes I had fallen asleep.

This time it wasn’t burning, it was the banging on the front door that shook me awake. Sunlight flooded my eyes as I opened them, the morning rays illuminating the room. I fell into the sofa as Dean jumped up startled by the banging, whipping out a gun from the waistband of his jeans. I stood up quickly as I didn’t know what was on the other side of the door, either.

The door opened to reveal an amused Sam as he took in the sight of me rubbing the sleep out of my eyes combined with Dean’s still surprised expression and the one unmade bed. His eyebrow raised questioningly.

“What! She fell asleep on me while we were watching TV. I didn’t want to wake her.”

When Dean’s rapid explanation didn’t convince Sam he just grumbled. “Sam. Don’t”

The smile left Sam’s face, realizing it wasn’t what it had previously seemed. I doubted there had been any instance where it wasn’t what it looked like, when it came to Dean. Meanwhile I wiped at the drool that had been running down my chin. I was still out of it due to the fact I was definitely not a morning person.

Shutting the door behind himself he made his way over to the kitchenette pulling out a frying pan, grabbing items out of the cupboards as he walked along the length of the wall.

“Can’t we eat out? We ate in last night, and because Freya turned up I couldn’t eat my burger at lunch.” Dean moaned out, complaining that his breakfast might be slightly healthier if Sam was to cook it.

“No. We don’t have time. Bobby assigned us a case we have to leave as soon as we’ve eaten and you both have gotten dressed.” Countered Sam.

“We can’t get something on the way?”

“No. You can eat something that’s not covered in grease for once. Suck it up.”

Only half listening to what the brothers were squabbling about I rifled through my bag pulling out an outfit I wanted to wear, and went into the bathroom to make myself clean again.

I took my time. Stepping into the stream of the shower, I let water race down my skin, washing the suds away from where I had previously applied the shampoo and shower gel. The grime and sweat that had collected on my flesh, ran off my body and down the drain.

Now not smelling like something had died, I stepped out of the shower and went about getting dressed. Not bothering to brush through my hair I wrapped half of it back into a bun on the top head.

The beautiful scent of bacon wafted under the bathroom door. Just as I leant forward to push down the handle Sam shouted, “You better get in here Frey if you want anything to eat”. I opened the door to see a couple of pieces of bacon clamped between Dean fingers and his mouth chewing rapidly. Sam just looked at him disapprovingly while chewing on his own piece of bacon.

“Thanks for waiting, Dean.” The sarcastic comment caused both of them to look over at me, Sam smiled and chuckled while Dean just rolled his eyes and grabbed yet another piece of bacon and ripped it between his teeth as a kind of, middle finger up, rebellion.

Shortly after breakfast and we had cleared out the motel of all of our belongings were back in Baby and we were on our way to see what case Bobby had found.